Free Republic

Earlier this month Christopher Mathias at Huffington Post connected the Walter Scott case to our new family model in: One-Eighth Of South Carolina Inmates Were Jailed Over Child Support Payments. Walter Scott Was One Of Them. But Scott, who was killed on Saturday by police officer Michael Slager in North Charleston, South Carolina, had also long struggled to pay child support. In 2008, he went to jail for a full six months after falling behind by $6,800 in child support payments,according to The Associated Press. Scott spent one night in jail in both 2011 and 2012, again because he owed...

Millions of YouTube viewers have been captivated by the 'Syrian hero boy' who manages to rescue a little girl while under gunfire. Now a group of Norwegian filmmakers have told BBC Trending they are behind it. They say it was filmed on location in Malta this summer with the intention of being presented as real. Lars Klevberg, a 34-year-old film director based in Oslo, wrote a script after watching news coverage of the conflict in Syria. He says he deliberately presented the film as reality in order to generate a discussion about children in conflict zones.

The joy parishioners feel this week that the Church of the Holy Innocents was saved from the chopping block is tempered by the fact that the priest who had a hand in saving it was transferred last spring by New York’s Archbishop and sent to a run-down and dangerous church outside of Johannesburg, South Africa.

After his criticisms about the Synod being manipulated and censored, the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, is continuing to raise concerns – in an increasingly distressed tone – about the direction the Church is taking, criticising the Pope, whilst at the same time claiming he does not wish it seem like he is speaking out against he Pope.” His latest interview with Darío Menor Torres was published by Spanish religious news weekly Vida Nueva. “Many have expressed their concerns to me. At this very critical moment, there is a strong sense that the Church is like...

The conclusions of the Synod's small groups. - Thanks to the collective revolt of the Synod majority [Update: Notice that these relationes (reports) have only been published after a collective revolt of the bishops against the dictatorship of Cardinal Baldisseri.] Marco Tosatti sets the tense scene in the Hall this Thursday: "An additional [act of] censorship, and the Synod Fathers rise up. / The General Secretariat of the Synod announced the decision of not publishing the relationes of the Circuli Minores. Erdo took the floor, distancing himself from the relatio [post disceptationem] published under his name, and saying that, if...

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has nominated new members of the International Theological Commission, in addition to renewing the five year mandate of several previously serving members. The following statement was issued by the Holy See Press Office: International Theological Commission - Press release 1. The conclusion of the eighth five-year term This year the eighth five-year term of the International Theological Commission, which began with the pontifical appointment of its Members in June 2009, will conclude. As is known, the International Theological Commission, instituted by the Servant of God Paul VI on 11 April 1969, has the task of assisting...

It is a disgraceful and a dangerous thing for an unbeliever to hear a Christian, presumably explaining science, nutrition, and medicine, talking nonsense on these topics. Many non-Christians are well-versed in Natural knowledge, so they can detect vast ignorance in such a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The danger is obvious-- the failure to conform interpretation to demonstrated knowledge opens the interpreter, and by extension, Christianity as a whole, to ridicule for being unlearned. All right, so St. Augustine didn't say "science, nutrition, and medicine," he said "the meaning of scripture." But other than that, he's describing a good...

In January 2011, the Weber-Morgan County Narcotics Strike Force conducted a nighttime drug raid on the Ogden, Utah, home of Matthew David Stewart. An ex-girlfriend had tipped off the police that Stewart was growing pot in his basement. He was; Stewart, a former veteran, suffered from PTSD, and used the pot to self-medicate. The police had no evidence that Stewart was selling any of his pot. Once police took down his door with a battering ram, Stewart, who was sleeping, grabbed a handgun.

Some remarkable statistics in a new report from Human Rights Watch and Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute: And then there's 'The Sting 2,' starring Jackie Gleason. All I remember about it is that it included a scene on a roller coaster. All of the high-profile domestic terrorism plots of the last decade, with four exceptions, were actually FBI sting operations—plots conducted with the direct involvement of law enforcement informants or agents, including plots that were proposed or led by informants. According to multiple studies, nearly 50 percent of the more than 500 federal counterterrorism convictions resulted from informant-based cases;...

The difficulty of obtaining good, affordable day care is well known as a problem afflicting the working poor. But increasingly, middle- and upper-middle-class parents are finding that day care is hard to find or access and that even when it is available it is startlingly costly. Among the mothers I spoke to, one sent her daughter to a day care proprietor where the owner secretly had another woman mind all eight babies all day long; another signed up for a slot at a local day care when she was newly pregnant. Her daughter is now 5, and she is still...

I had a teacher once who called his students "idiots" when they screwed up. He was our orchestra conductor, a fierce Ukrainian immigrant named Jerry Kupchynsky, and when someone played out of tune, he would stop the entire group to yell, "Who eez deaf in first violins!?" He made us rehearse until our fingers almost bled. He corrected our wayward hands and arms by poking at us with a pencil.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Video has surfaced of GOP strategist Karl Rove calling U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township, the "most liberal Republican." Speaking during the Aspen Ideas Festival in late June, Rove criticized Amash's reputed staunch libertarian stances on legislation as antithetical to tackling issues in Washington. The swipe came during a June 27 panel discussion about whether to include some libertarian tenets in Republican policy, which Rove cautiously advocated. "The most liberal Republican is Justin Amash of Michigan. Far more liberal than any other Republican," said Rove, who was senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to former...

<p>SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A man was arrested in Macomb County by police responding to reports of a vehicle with a mounted machine gun driving around late at night.</p> <p>The armor-plated military-type vehicle featured a modified World War II .50-caliber machine gun.</p>

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — U.S. Rep. Justin Amash wants the Supreme Court to throw out the federal definition of marriage altogether, a revelation made the night before justices were set to weigh one of two gay marriage cases this week. Amash, R-Cascade Township, was pressed for his take on the federal Defense of Marriage Act during an American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan forum Monday in Grand Rapids. "My view has always been that government should not be in the business of defining or redefining marriage," Amash said. "I see it as a private issue. I personally see it as...

Edmund was born in London, the son of a bookseller. He was raised a Catholic, given a scholarship to St. John's College, Oxford, when fifteen, and became a fellow when only seventeen. His brilliance attracted the attention of such leading personages as the Earl of Leicester, Robert Cecil, and even Queen Elizabeth.

Almost half of Britons think children are violent and starting to behave like animals, a Barnardo's survey suggests. The children's charity says the research suggests society holds a negative view towards children despite the majority being well behaved. Of the more than 2,000 people questioned by ICM Research, 44% said young people were becoming feral. Barnado's chief executive Anne Marie Carrie said it was "depressing" so many were ready to give up on children. The survey revealed that: 49% agreed children are beginning to behave like animals Almost 47% thought youngsters were angry, violent and abusive One in four said...

Are you an American employee? If so, today’s column will likely offend you. If you’d rather not be offended, read no further. If you continue and then complain, I’m sorry, but that simply proves you’re, well, stupid. But then again, stupidity plays a large role in today’s topic. Still reading? OK. You’ve had fair warning. So you’re an American employee. Maybe you make car parts. Maybe you’re an engineer or designer. Maybe you’re an accountant, store clerk or tradesman. Whatever you do, you’re probably stupid or lazy. Yes, I wrote it, and I mean it. You are either stupid or...

I've been delving a little into Reagan's presidency to try and snuff what really happened away from the ideologues from both sides. Is there anywhere on the web or anyone that can give a good synopsis of the Tax cuts/Tax increases during Reagan's tenure as Governor as well as President?

Glorious citizens of America, this week is your time to unite and commemorate one of the greatest chapters in our nation’s superior history. This week, just days after we celebrated the birth of our nation 233 years ago, we are allowed to pat ourselves on the back for another one of our country’s accomplishments. This act wasn’t just a landmark moment in the history of the U.S., but in the history of mankind. Forty years ago this week, man first set foot on the moon. And it was the day man’s intellect reached beyond its natural bounds and achieved. And...

CASCADE TOWNSHIP -- GE Aviation today announced it will cut about 100 jobs at its Digital North America operations at plants in the Grand Rapids area, Clearwater, Fla., and Germantown, Md. Spokeswoman Jennifer Villarreal said about 95 of those positions will come from the Cascade Township location, formerly Smiths Aerospace, 3290 Patterson Ave. SE, which employs about 1,500. GE purchased Smiths last year. The job cuts are a cost cutting measure to keep the company competitive and "complete engineering design work for some of our large aerospace programs," according to a prepared statement.